2017 Year-End Review and 2018 Goals

Time has been flying! Holy cow! It’s almost 2018 already, and and and —

Okay, I’m a bit early. I don’t expect much to change drastically in 3 days, so here we are.

So how did I do?

~Release 1 book (besides Ever Touched) ~NOT DONE, although I got a new cover for In Flames and put Reaper Girl into KDP Select. 
~Publish Ever Touched (set for May release)~DONE! 
~Start revision of Pirouette/Death Dancer ~NOT DONE, but had an interesting idea the other day about Alisia’s lineage. 
~Finish Covenant ~NOT DONE, but it’s at 24k now. Wanted to hit 30k before the new year, but I’m not sure that’s possible now. 😦 
~Start Elysium ~NOT DONE. At all.
~Finish and release Fireborn ~DONE. Rewrote it and submitted it to TDP for publication next year.
~Outline book #1 in Fey Touched spin-off series ~NOT DONE. May toy with this next year.
~Get on a consistent, simple exercise plan and STICK WITH IT ~NOPE. 
~Eat healthier/Gluten-free ~NOT DONE.  😦 Well, made the attempt, anyway…
~Get back into darkroom when hands are better ~NOT DONE.
~Add in a second writing session twice a week (8 minutes)~NOT DONE. Have been fighting pain and exhaustion.
~Try to write more short fiction ~DONE! Fireborn (55k) and When She Sleeps (projected 60k) 
~Continue with FYFB class (so behind right now!)~NOPE. Downloaded everything that’s available that I haven’t gotten to.
~Start working on Survivor Rewrite outline again ~DONE! Not finished due to wrist issues.

This year has been roughly for me physically. I have been exhausted more, and the trigeminal neuralgia flared up again so we’ve been trying to find the right combination of meds to control the pain. So far, we haven’t been very successful.

I was also laid off from my job in August, so there’s been some upheaval there. I have been working on my freelancing/virtual assistant business to try to bring in more money. Things are kind of up in the air, and it has been wreaking havoc on my productivity.

I have decided to buckle down and make things happen in 2018!

Goals:

~2nd round of edits/release secret project (early 2018)
~Revise and release Fireborn
~Get serious about exercise and DO SOMETHING
~Take pictures regularly (once a month, 1 a day for x amount of days, etc)
~Get moving with dictation again
~Progress on Covenant
~Progress on When She Sleeps
~Start Survivor Rewrite for reals this time
~Do something with Death Dancer/Pirouette
~Get better with planning
~Start writing every day again, even if it’s 100 words
~Figure out Reaper Girl #3, Faeborn

I’ve written roughly 80k this year, which is down from last year. Would like to hit 100k and more in 2018.

2016 Year-in-Review and 2017 Goals

Here we are with my 2016 Year-in-Review and 2017 Goals. This year FLEW by, and I had a lot of health stuff crop up, so things did not go as smoothly, and some things had to be put on the back burner. All in all, I think I did pretty damn well considering. I wrote around 130,000 words for the year, which is excellent. I did a lot of editing and revising, and that’s not counted in the total.

The two major accomplishments for this year were submitting Pirouette/Death Dancer to a publisher and one agent. I got frustrated by the process, and realized that my ability to meet deadlines due to my health is compromised, and besides that, I like having control over things, so I decided to stop trying with traditional publishing and try to publish Pirouette independently. That’s not to say I’m done with traditional publishing; it just means that Pirouette will probably at some point be a Turtleduck Press release.

The second one is Ever Touched. I finished it and submitted it to my editor by my deadline of December 1st. Due to life craziness and a computer in the shop for 11 days, it was a struggle, but I’m glad to say that I made it. I’ve already received my edits back, and have started the 2nd round.

Also, Turtleduck Press published To Rule the Stars, an anthology of space princess stories. My story, Bound, is part of it (and a sneak peek of Ever Touched!). Check it out here.

What about everything else?

~Release one novel – <–DONE, technically. I released Reaper Girl as a perk of signing up for my newsletter. I am working on releasing it everywhere.
~Finish and release Fireborn <–NOT DONE. I am close, though. I was never able to get it done to my satisfaction. It’s my #1 goal in 2017 after Ever Touched edits are done.
~Finish Pirouette revision and submit to publisher. If rejected, make a ruling as to what to do with it (trad or indie)<–DONE. Was rejected by both publisher and agent. Have decided to publish it with TDP.
~Begin Flamebound rewrite <–NOT DONE. Would love to do something with it in 2017.
~Begin Survivor rewrite <–NOT DONE. Definitely going to be a project for 2017. I am DYING to get this one out there.
~Make progress on Awaken Me <–NOT DONE, unless thinking about it counts!
~Finish Ever Touched <–DONE and turned in on time. Slated for May 2017 release.
~Get back into darkroom <–DONE. Processed a test roll of film, but have not been able to do any printing. And b/c of my skin issues, it’s not looking likely for awhile. 😦 
~Try not to stress so much <–NOT DONE. LOL. It feels like all I did was stress out about things.
~Experiment with plotting techniques <–DONE! “Plotting from the Middle” and Monica Leonelle’s techniques.
~Finish up Changeling serial <–DONE! And as of Feb. 1st, I am starting a new one in the Fey Touched world.
~Get back on diet/eat healthy/exercise<–KINDA SORTA. I’ve been trying to get better with exercise, but a sprained knee screwed me up. Likewise with the diet. Been trying, but have been losing and gaining the SAME FIVE POUNDS. Ugh.
~My word for this year is NURTURE: nurture myself, nurture my creativity, nurture my dreams.

So, all in all, not too shabby. Here are my goals for 2017:

~Release 1 book (besides Ever Touched)
~Publish Ever Touched (set for May release)
~Start revision of Pirouette/Death Dancer
~Finish Covenant
~Start Elysium
~Finish and release Fireborn
~Outline book #1 in Fey Touched spin-off series
~Get on a consistent, simple exercise plan and STICK WITH IT
~Eat healthier/Gluten-free
~Get back into darkroom when hands are better
~Add in a second writing session twice a week (8 minutes)
~Try to write more short fiction
~Continue with FYFB class (so behind right now!)
~Start working on Survivor Rewrite outline again

I think that’s enough for now. What are your goals for 2017?

#ROW80 Check-in June 19th

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there!

This round is almost done, and it feels like it went by SO FAST.

I’ve mostly been working on my short story for Turtleduck Press. I got stuck, started over (!), realized that wasn’t working, and continued on in the original document. Kind of roundabout, but it made me realize that what I had was working. It will most definitely be longer than 10k (which was the wordcount limit. Last time we did this, Reaper Girl was supposed to be 10k, too, but it came in at 22k. I write long) which is okay, but I am going to try to keep it close if possible.

Here’s how I’ve done on the rest:

Ever Touched – Nada, but I have definite plans to restart this soon.

Covenant – Also a nada, also plans to restart.

Water – Almost every day.

Query letter – Haven’t done much with it this week, although I am pondering.

Elysium – On hold for now.

Exercise – 1 time this week. Kinda fell off the program here this week. Plans to get more in this week for sure!

Darkroom – Yesterday was my tentative day to print, but I had too much other stuff going on and not enough energy. Next weekend is another camping trip, so maybe the following weekend might work, provided I’m not bogged down with other things and exhausted. 😉

Chocolate consumption: A lot. WW chocolate sandwiches, WW sundaes, WW chocolate-caramel thingies, chocolate pudding. Also red velvet-flavored chocolate chip cookies (except cream cheese-flavored chips), which don’t really count, but were cool and were yummy.

 

2015 Year-in-Review and 2016 Goals

Happy New Year!

I’ve been doing this for at least 5 years now, maybe more, because it helps to take stock of what I’ve accomplished (and what I haven’t) and it also helps me to set concrete goals for the new year. So, here we go!

This year’s goals:

~Publish Grave Touched, pending approval, in May (tentative) – DONE! Grave Touched was published May 1st, after a 2-year hiatus. It was my biggest accomplishment in 2015, hands down!
~Write Fireborn, Reaper Girl novella – MOSTLY DONE. I started Fireborn in January, but got tied up with GT’s release and lost momentum. Started it back up after, and ran into some problems, and had to rewrite a portion of it. It’s at 19k currently, with maybe 5-10k left to go. I am hoping to finish it and release it this year.
~Figure out a plot for Ever Touched – DONE
~Start writing Ever Touched – DONE for NanowriMo, and it’s at 32k currently.
~Poke at Survivor (my book, not the TV show) on Sundays – DONE. Poking has happened, as well as a revised outline. Have not started the rewrite, but plan to this year.
~Start rewrite of Flamebound – NOT DONE, but planned for this year.
~Write 1 poem per week minimum – NOT DONE, but wrote 10 poems over the course of the year.
~Do something with darkroom – DONE. Began cleaning and replenishing chemicals.  Shot a test roll of b&w film that I will be developing soon. Also got my 35mm automatic camera working again so I can continue shooting more b&w. Also planning on shooting b&w infrared.

So, all in all, I didn’t do too badly. Other notable accomplishments:

~Started a new novel, Covenant, which is up to 13k currently
~Wrote and posted the second and third installments of my fantasy serial, Changeling, at Turtleduck Press
~Got Reaper Girl ready for publication
~Wrote around 100k for the year
~Made concrete plans for more novellas
~Began the revision of Pirouette for a publisher. Pirouette has been languishing for 4 years because I didn’t know what to do with it

Non-writing accomplishments:

~Diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia + meds which is improving my quality of life greatly
~Obtained a digital-converted-DSLR and began experimenting with digital infrared
~Began reviving my darkroom and have plans to start working in it this year.
~Revived my editing business and have landed several jobs

So what are my goals for 2016?

~Release one novel
~Finish and release Fireborn
~Finish Pirouette revision and submit to publisher. If rejected, make a ruling as to what to do with it (trad or indie)
~Begin Flamebound rewrite
~Begin Survivor rewrite
~Make progress on Awaken Me
~Finish Ever Touched
~Get back into darkroom
~Try not to stress so much
~Experiment with plotting techniques
~Finish up Changeling serial
~Get back on diet/eat healthy/exercise
~My word for this year is NURTURE: nurture myself, nurture my creativity, nurture my dreams.

Annnd I believe that’s enough.  I have a good feeling about this year, and I hope to get lots done and take care of myself better. 🙂

What are your goals for this year?

 

 

#ROW80 Check-in 10/21/15

My beautiful cover for Reaper Girl, created by the awesome and wonderful Dannika Dark. 🙂

I’ve been a bit busy, which is a good thing, and I’ve done some writing, but not as much as I wanted to! Things keep popping up. This week has been the week of the migraine, and I *think* — hope — it’s gone for good. I think we have a storm front coming through or something. And, naturally, the TN pain had to get in on the action, so that’s been hurting quite a lot despite being on an intermediate dose between the lower dosage and the new prescribed dosage. Being that this is all new still, I’m not really sure what’s going on. But today it has been tolerable, so that’s a good thing.

The BIG news is that I have a cover for Reaper Girl, my novella that was published originally in the Under Her Protection anthology. I am going to be giving away a free copy to anyone who signs up for my newsletter. I sat down to work on the cover and showed it (a very rough draft) to some writer friends and I learned that just because I’m a photographer, doesn’t mean I am good at cover design (and Grave Touched doesn’t count. I was just following what the original designer, SM Reine, did with it). I am in the process of learning, and I learned a great deal with that one. Along with lots of great advice, one of the writers took my awful cover and turned it into the beautiful cover on the left. (Her name is Dannika Dark, and she rocks, both with writing and cover design). So that’s my cover. All I need to do is format the novella for Kindle/Nook/etc and I’m there. 🙂 The big challenge will be to make Fireborn match this lovely cover. I want to do it myself. *twitches*

Okay, on to the rundown! Here’s what I have done:

Physical activity: 2 days, approximately 15 minutes each
Test roll: Couldn’t do it this past weekend because silly me, I didn’t check the batteries! They’re like, at least 10 years old, and deader than dead. So my husband bought some from his work. So…this will be happening soonish.
Fieborn: Hit a bit of a snag that had me stumped, and I believe I may (maybe!) be over the hump. 672 new words.
Covenant: Nothing, although ideas are simmering.
Nano/Ever Touched: Going to be outlining at least some of it (at least enough to start me off) this week sometime.

Chocolate consumption: birthday cake! WW Sundaes! Still trying to diet, and that’s been going alright, I guess. Eating out at restaurants is the toughest, especially when the chosen restaurant has little-to-no options for health-conscious or dieting customers. So I haven’t been doing awesome, but I am trying at home as much as possible.

Fireborn

So I definitely decided to write a novella (and maybe more!) in the Reaper Girl universe. It’s called Fireborn, and it takes place after the events of Reaper Girl, and continues Rick and Leliel’s adventures.  Leliel discovers she has some interesting abilities, which not only get her into trouble, but enable her to help other people.

So there are these young men killing themselves by self-immolation.  It’s horrifying, but there’s something about it that Leliel thinks is unusual.  She determines that it isn’t suicide, but murder.

Yeah, so that’s the premise.  I’ve already written almost 2k on it and I’m having a blast.  I just love Leliel.  She is such a fun character.  Rick is cool, too.

I hope to finish the draft by the end of the month.  And revise/edit it and release it ASAP.  And I’m brainstorming ideas for more novellas.

If by some chance you haven’t read Under Her Protection (which is where Reaper Girl can be found — check it out here.  There’s four awesome stories in it about some very special women who rescue men.  It was a blast to write!

Future projects include Ever Touched (Fey Touched book #3, as soon as I can settle on a premise) and Survivor. Stay tuned.

 

This blog is not dead.

:waves to everyone:

Hi. I thought I’d do an update, as it’s been a loooooonnnng time since I last posted.

What have I been up to? Well, I finished the second draft of Grave Touched, took a day off, and started the revision. I’m 158 pages (of 251) in.

The second half is a bit of a mess because I kept losing track of my characters. I’ve got two groups, one in one location and one in another. I kept finding the wrong characters in the wrong places! I also forgot a few so they seemed to just disappear. Not good. Bad, bad writer. No cookie.

This is really the first time I’ve dealt with such a large cast. I will get it right, I swear!

So it’s looking like I’m on track to make my Jan. 1st deadline. However, I had one person beta it within a week (yes, I’m that crazy!) and her feedback is helping me with all of my lovely typos and confusing spots. I have another one coming in two weeks, which should help, too. Both of these people are awesome for helping me out and wading through what is essentially a first draft (and I have never had anyone beta a first draft, so it’s been kind of scary).

As for future stuffs…first, I’ll be taking a break after I turn in Grave Touched. In June, it will have been THREE YEARS since I started Grave Touched. I feel like I need to move on, desperately. I have taken a few breaks here and there (and three months because of my eye in 2013) but for the most part, I’ve only worked on Grave Touched.

Per my Year of No Fear Manifesto, I’m supposed to be working on revisions. So that’s most likely what I’ll end up doing. I also have a few new ideas for novels (or novellas), one of which is making a series in the Reaper Girl universe. I currently have *counts them* 2 new ideas for new novels that are really gnawing on me so…I don’t know. I may try that whole write-two-things thing for the first time in forever.

I also have Fey Touched book 3 looming. It’s called Ever Touched and I’ve made some changes to it. My new protagonist is Brianna, and her love interest is [redacted]. I’ll give you a hint. They both have big secrets that they’d do anything to keep hidden. Fun times.

This month is NaNoWriMo, and I couldn’t really participate. I miss it tremendously. While I can’t write 50k in a month anymore, I still like to participate with a lower goal (usually 30k). The energy and excitement helps me stay focused and producing. I’ve promised myself that I will do NaNoWriMo next year, come hell or high water!

On the Turtleduck Press front, we have a new novel releasing December 1st called Even the Score. It’s KD Sarge’s latest, set in her amazing Dream verse. I copyedited the book so of course I got to read it and it is AMAZING.

As for my health, I’m doing much better. My back is almost 100% now thanks to physical therapy. My eye continues to be painful. I’ve been trying to chase down an answer, and nothing so far has panned out. I think it’s time for that second opinion.

The holidays are upon us! Looking forward to it. I started my Christmas shopping early this year so I’d be more prepared and it’ll give me more time in case I need it for Grave Touched. I’ve always loved holidays mostly for the family element. I love my family and love spending time with them. Love giving and receiving gifts. But most of all, I’m glad we’re all together. That’s what makes the holidays so magical.

So, no, this blog isn’t dead. I’ve been working nonstop on Grave Touched. I wanted to join in ROW80 Round 4, but I figured between the copyediting and finishing Grave Touched, I wouldn’t have a lot of free time. I’ll definitely join next year Round 1.

If I don’t make it back here before the holidays, have a great, beautiful, perfect, fun, special, and loving holiday season.

#ROW80 Final Check-in Round 2

I’ve been so insanely busy that I missed the two previous check-ins. But I wanted to make this one for sure.

As you know, I’ve made some decent progress on several projects. I’ve finished just shy of 10k, which is 25k below my initial goal. Life took some big swings at me, and I haven’t been writing as much. I’ve been mostly editing, which I didn’t factor into my total numbers. I’m finally finished with Reaper Girl and all that’s left is copyedits on the other stories (and Reaper Girl at the end). After that’s put to bed, my next priority is the Grave Touched rewrite. That really, really, really needs to get going again. I think I wrote only once on it this month. I’m ~40k in, ~80k to go.

So next round, that will be the priority. And possibly a side project, just to keep my muse from gnawing on me too much.

Final stats!

Words written: ~10,000
Words remaining: ~25,000
Projects worked on: 4 (Reaper Girl, Awaken Me, Soulfire, and Grave Touched)
Times wrist was a problem: 2
Times used voice recognition: 1
Times FINIS: 1 (Reaper Girl)
Chocolate consumption: 29 mentions total, 5 mentions of “a lot” or “too much,” 2 mentions of “none.” (!!!)
Music: Adam Lambert, In Flames, Def Leppard, Within Temptation, Goo Goo Dolls, The Fray, Device, Halestorm

Annnnd that’s it for this round. Thanks for visiting.

#ROW80 Check-in 6/15/14 – More words

I’ve managed to work on the Grave Touched Rewrite some more. I’ve written 1,204 words in the past two days. I’m at a very tricky part, and I’m not sure which direction to take. I’m only a third in, and I don’t want to reveal everything just yet. But I still want to move the story forward. So that’s today’s task. Figuring it all out.

I also will probably be getting the Reaper Girl feedback from my editor very soon, so I may need to work on that, too.

I had some dental work done yesterday that messed things up a bit. Thankfully, the pain level has gone way down so I should be okay today.

My muse gave me a total new direction on an older project, and I’m currently trying to stay focused on Grave Touched and Reaper Girl. Crazy muse.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.

Stats:

Words written: 1,204 words/9,596 written total
Words remaining: 25,404 words
What’s happening: The evil things are about to crash a party
What’s next: I’m not really sure.
Feeling: Mouth still sore from dental work, but otherwise okay.
Eye report: Twinge-y
Back report: Also twinge-y
Chocolate consumption: Ye Gods. Went a bit crazy yesterday with it. Oops?

#ROW80 Check-in 6/8/14 – Still no words

Yep, I still haven’t written anything. I have finished the Grave Touched reread, and I’m ready to dive back in. Might do that today if I can and feel up to it. I woke up to some pretty severe back pain and all I want to do is curl up (carefully) with one of my books and read.

I’ve started revising Reaper Girl. I can’t do anything major until I hear back from our editor, but I figured working on the smaller issues wouldn’t hurt and would help because the deadline for revisions is the 22nd, and I would like to have the small stuff done so all I need to worry about is the big stuff. Assuming there is more to revise, of course.

Also been working on my How To Write A Series coursework (a class given by Holly Lisle) and have been working on what’s going to become a series of novellas. (Hopefully. With my luck, they’ll grow to novels….) It has to do with ley lines, which I’m fascinated with, and people who solve crime using them. Should be fun to write.

No real stats this time as well. I hope to start working on Grave Touched again and I hope to have words to report. And chocolate consumption. I don’t think I’ve eaten very much since the last check-in. Not good, as I need my chocolate!